A news headline went unnoticed by the international media. It simply said 'Four murders of gay men in Yemen.'

An LGBT support group in UK, Rainbow Warriors, published the news in September 16, 2015, stating that the gay community in the Yemeni port city Aden has reported four targeted assassinations of gay men there since August 23ed; that is since the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) took control of some parts of the port city.

In the midst of Yemeni mayhem, the international media is excused not to pay attention. Why should they care about the fate of four persons at a time when a whole population is being besieged, bombarded and starved to death? Yet this incident should send alarm signals worldwide -- for it does give us a taste of what is yet to come. It tells us that if Yemen's chaos continues, the consequences will come back and bite us.

A Proxy Regional War with a Devastating Humanitarian Outcome

The war in Yemen is a complex issue. A civil war is taking place on the ground and regional powers, namely Saudi Arabia and Iran, are supporting different warring actors.

Two parties to the conflict are fighting the war:

• The first group, supported by Iran, is made of Zaidi Shia rebels -- known as Huthis militia-, troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and local tribesmen.

• The Second, supported by Saudi Arabia, is composed of troops loyal to the President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, Sunni Southern Militias and local tribesmen.

Regardless of how the war started, all parties to the conflict in Yemen are alleged to have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, some of which may amount to war crimes. All parties to the conflict are also using heavy explosive weapons across the country, the majority of them unleashed on populated areas. The proportion of deaths and injuries that are civilian in populated areas of Yemen range from 93 percent to 97 percent. It is as if the warring parties to the conflict are literally fighting each other over civilian bodies.

Moreover, the Saudi led Arab Coalition aerial and naval blockade on the country has led to a de-facto starvation of the Yemeni population, especially as Yemen importsabout 90 percent of its food and fuel from outside the country, including the lion's share of its wheat and all its rice.

Chaos, Murders of Gay Men and Rise of Islamist Groups

It is not surprising therefore that the death of four gay men went unnoticed in the midst of this catastrophic situation.

The targeting of these four persons was done because of their sexual orientation. Imagine if Islamists targeted four gay men in the midst of Zurich, London or Washington, how would the reaction be?

But then again we are talking about Yemen, where an individual's life has little if any worth for a confused global audience -- consider the silence of the international community to the alleged war crimes committed in Yemen and the picture will become clear.

Perhaps we should therefore look at the issue from a different angel: how does this war affect us here in Europe and North America?

Both Al Qaeda and the Islamic state are taking advantage of the power vacuum and chaos in Yemen. Both groups are fighting for influence in the southern regions and manifesting their presence in Aden. And both are benefiting from a Machiavellian tactics used by the two parties to the Yemeni conflict.

The Huthis are known enemies of the Sunni radical Islamists and they have suffered from several suicide attacks from both Al Qaeda and IS.

However, former President's Saleh has often nurtured strong relations with Jihadists in Yemen, and some of his actions during the war, such as ordering his troops to withdraw from certain areas in the South only to be occupied by Al Qaeda militias may be construed as tactical manoeuvres intended to highlight his 'indispensability' for stability in Yemen.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies are reportedly fighting side by side with followers of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula AQAP -- they share the objective of defeating the Zaydi Huthis.

Supporting Jihadists and the Regional/Global Consequences

This policy of supporting Jihadists is not new to Saudi Arabia. In fact, in the on-going cold war between Sunni and Shia Islam(s), it is reported that substantial and sustained funding from private donors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar has played a central role in the ISIS surge into Sunni areas of Iraq. Similarly, it is also confirmed that Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in their attempts to topple Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, have funded Islamist groups -- some are local Jihadi Salafis such as Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam and others are known Al Qaeda affiliate, such as al-Nusra Front.

Ironically, since the war started, the United States continued its drone attacks in Yemen targeting Al Qaeda leaders while tactility supporting the Saudi air bombardment. Its extended support to Saudi Arabia is known to be reluctant. Behind the scenes, American and Western policy makers doubt that an air campaign will decide the outcome of the war and are growing impatient because of the humanitarian costs to Yemeni civilians.

Yet American war against Al Qaida seems meaningless at a time when its allied Gulf kingdom is working on the same side as Al Qaeda militias in Yemen, and indirectly, facilitating its rise.

The intended objectives of Saudi policies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen were not achieved.

Al Assad remains in power, an alliance between Iran, Syria and Russia has been undermining Saudi Sunni hegemony and its Jihadist allies in the region, and a swift end to the Huthis never materialised.

What happened instead is a destabilization of the Arabian Peninsula and its neighbouring countries. Never mind the displacement of millions of Syrians, Iraqis and Yemenis; the targeting of minorities, and the enslavement of women and children in Iraq and Syria.

Saudi Shia minority, estimated to be 10-15 percent of the population, are growing restless and are vocal in their opposition to the Yemeni war -- especially as the Saudi media is painting these wars in sectarian colours. The Kingdom is not as stable as one would like to think.

Sultanate of Oman -- which refused to join the Saudi led alliance, opened its borders to Yemeni refugees and is attempting to mediate an end to the war -- is watching the developments with growing concern. The fate of south of Yemen is vital for its own stability as Oman's southern region is predominantly Sunni. A growing influence of Al Qaeda and IS militias is bound to spell over its borders. The majority of Omanis belong to the Ibadi denomination of Islam (neither Sunni nor Shia), considered as heretical by these two Islamist groups.

This destabilization seen in a context of a connected square of Islamist controlled areas in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Horn of Africa should concern us.

The death of four gay men may be of no consequence in the midst of Yemeni mayhem -- but it does send us alarm signal about the growing influence of Al Qaeda and Islamic State in Yemen. It reminds us that in an interconnected world, ignoring such chaos is bound to come back and haunt us. Think of the Charlie Hebdo massacre (planed by Al Qaeda in Yemen) and the waves of refugees flooding Europe and the relevance to Europe and North America will become clear. An end to this chaos should be your priority as well.

Border Police shot dead a Palestinian teenager Tuesday afternoon as he attempted to stab officers near the East Jerusalem village of Abu Dis, in the third stabbing attack of the day against Israelis.

According to police, the ran at guards with a knife at the Kiosk Junction shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is great). He was shot after refusing to halt, despite being ordered to do so several times by the guards.

The assailant died of his wounds at the site. No other injuries were reported. He was later identified as 16-year-old Buadi A-Nar from the West Bank city of Jenin, the Walla website reported.

Also Tuesday afternoon, a Palestinian was arrested in Ras el-Tira near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya for allegedly attempting to stab an IDF soldier.

According to initial reports on Channel 10, the attacker was participating in a riot at the site. No IDF soldiers were hurt in the incident. There was no immediate word on the condition of the attacker.

The attacks come on the heels of two earlier incidents in Jerusalem. In the northeastern neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev, two Palestinian teens stabbed a security guard at a light rail station, moderately wounding him. The injured guard fired at his two attackers, wounding the younger one, aged 12.

Minutes later, a Palestinian assailant attempted to stab police officers at the Damascus Gate of the Old City, who shot and disarmed him. The attacker, a 37-year-old East Jerusalem resident, was taken to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in critical condition before dying of his wounds.

Also Tuesday, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a bus traveling on Route 443, in the West Bank northwest of Jerusalem. The bus sustained damage but there were no injuries, according to Israel Radio.

In a separate incident, a man has was lightly injured in a stone throwing attack in the West Bank outside Ramallah. He was treated at the entrance to the Psagot settlement.

Israeli paramedics evacuate a wounded Palestinian boy, who was shot after allegedly stabbing an Israeli security guard, on the Jerusalem light rail

Two Arab youths stabbed a security guard for the light rail in the northeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev on Tuesday, police said. Minutes later, a stabbing attack was thwarted near Damascus Gate.

The security guard, who was moderately wounded in the attack, managed to fire his weapon toward the two attackers, wounding one, a 12-year-old boy.

Passengers on the light rail subdued the second attacker, who is 14, until police officers arrived at the scene and took him into custody.

According to Palestinian sources, the two attackers were cousins, Moawiyah and Ali Alkam. One is from the Shuafat refugee camp and the other from nearby Beit Hanina.

The victim suffered stab wounds to the upper body, according to the Magen David Adom first-aid service.

"I saw that the train had stopped and on the scene there were large numbers of police officers and security guards," David Dalfan, an MDA paramedic, said.

"A young man, approximately 24 years old, was lying on the ground next to the curb. He was fully conscious with superficial stab wounds. We quickly gave him first aid and loaded him onto an ambulance," Dalfan said.

The guard's condition was stable, according to the paramedics on the scene. He was evacuated to the city's Shaare Zedek Medical Center for further treatment.

The attacker who had been shot by the guard was also treated by paramedics before he was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, police said. He was in serious condition, unconscious and on a ventilator, the hospital said.

The two assailants were residents of East Jerusalem, one from Beit Hanina and the other from Shuafat, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

"The swift and determined response by the light rail guard and the passengers prevented the injury of other innocent people," said Avi Cohen, the captain of the nearby police station.

In a separate incident, an assailant attempted to stab police near Damascus Gate. The police officers, who were not harmed, shot and disarmed him. The attacker, a 37-year-old East Jerusalem resident, was taken to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in critical condition before dying of his wounds.

A 50-year-old bystander also suffered a light injury in his hand from the gunfire, Samri said.

Much ink has been spilled blaming the state of U.S.–Israel relations on the poor personal rapport between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu. The fact is that huggable Barney the Purple Dinosaur could have been Israel's elected leader, and the relations would have been equally hostile.

For seven decades from the moment of Israel's birth - through five wars, one campaign, eight operations, two "uprisings," and years of terrorism - Palestinian Arabs have done everything possible to avoid living peacefully side by side with a Jewish state.

The situation . . . as a result of the continued Israeli occupation and its practices is the worst and most critical since 1948. . . . How long will this protracted Israeli occupation of our land last? After 67 years for how long do you think it is possible for it to continue? . . . Seventy years of suffering, injustice, oppression, and deprivation, and the perpetuation of the longest occupation known to mankind in modern history.

The Palestinian narrative has never varied: Israel has been built on occupied Arab territory - not since 1967, but since 1948. That's why Palestinians claim a "right of return" whose very purpose is their ideal "one-state solution" - one state where Jews are demographically outnumbered.

Standing in the way of the Palestinians' one-state goal has been Israel's and America's unwavering commitment to a negotiated final resolution of the conflict. A negotiated resolution would legitimize each side and leave both parties still standing.

Hence, the Arab side has sought to eschew negotiations in two ways: first, directly, by the use of force; and, second, indirectly, by insisting on externally imposed "solutions" via multilateral entities where Israel is outnumbered - such as the United Nations.

In contrast, here is Netanyahu at the U.N. General Assembly on October 1, 2015: "I am prepared to immediately, immediately, resume direct peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions whatsoever."

So when President Obama announced on November 6, 2015, via Rob Malley, Middle East coordinator at the National Security Council, that there was an allegedly "new" "reality" in which "the parties are not going to be in a position to negotiate a final status agreement" during his presidency, he was adopting the Palestinian playbook.

This means the president will not spend his final year doing the only thing that would move the ball forward - namely, pressuring Abbas to choose diplomacy and negotiations over violence and third-party coercion. Rather, Obama will attempt to impose his will on Israel, the U.N. being the obvious modus operandi. After all, this president chose the Security Council over Congress on the Iran deal. He can let the Council do the dirty work on Israel, too. Indeed, over the past month, Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., has been laying the groundwork for just such a treacherous strategy.

Back up to October 3, 2015. A knife-wielding Palestinian attacked Adele Banita, a young Israeli mother, while she walked in Jerusalem's Old City with her husband Aharon, two-year old son, and infant daughter. Adele lived to tell the tale, supported by video evidence. Her 21-year-old husband lay dying, her son was wounded, and she suffered multiple stab wounds. With a knife still lodged in her body, she cried out for help to nearby Arab shopkeepers, who looked on. Instead of coming to her aid, they spit on her, laughed, told her to die, and stood by. A Jewish man who came to the family's aid was knifed to death.

But on October 22, 2015, Samantha Power made this shocking statement to the Security Council: "In Jerusalem, shoppers and merchants are on edge. . . . Said an Arab shopkeeper in the old city, 'When I prepare the juice, I am scared to cut the oranges in case someone sees me with the knife and shoots me.'"

Rather than tell the real-life story of the actual Arab shopkeepers and their pathologically violent Jew-hatred, Ambassador Power peddled the tale of an Arab shopkeeper's imagining himself to be a victim - in the same place as Banita's real killers.

Power continued by calling on "both parties" to "exercise restraint." The Palestinians heard loud and clear the message of moral relativism and impunity for Palestinian incitement.

Days later, on November 3, 2015, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., wrote a formal letter to the U.N. claiming that, in October, Palestinian "bodies were returned with missing corneas and other organs, further confirming past reports about organ harvesting by the occupying Power from the Palestinian victims of its brutality."

Add to this Power's statement to the Security Council on October 16, 2015, in which she explained that Jews living in settlements (on what is legally disputed territory whose ownership is subject to negotiations) and Jews dying at the hands of "frustrated" terrorists were part of a "cycle of escalation."

Not surprisingly, the Palestinians' murderous rampage continues.

Anyone who believes that the president's toxic foreign policy on Israel is a mere personal vendetta against a foreign leader he doesn't like is giving Obama far too little credit. His foreign policy has never wavered: He sought "daylight" between himself and Israel. He has achieved a chasm.

The only question left is how much more blood the president can extract from Israel in his last twelve months.